filter media

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stephenray75

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Mar 9, 2004
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I have a cansiter filter that has 5 baskets. what should i put in these?
1- will have carcoal
1 will have just floss
1- ??????
1 - ??????
1- ???????


thanks in advance
 
you really don't need charcoal.......use it to take meds out of the water and if your tanks starts to smell but other than that a lot of people don't use it at all.
you have endless choices
how about a course pad.....floss.......bio material.....bio material........fine filter pad?
 
I agree with N8DOGG about the charcoal. I rarely use it. It sounds as if you have a Rena XP3. Your choices depend on how much of what type of filter media you want. You can lean toward a heavy bio or mechanical media set up. Just make sure you do both.

I have a heavy bio-load in my 125 so I have, from the bottom up,:
course foam (20 micron)/medium foam (30 micron)/EHFILAV (bio)/EHFISUBSTRAT (bio)/filter floss.

You may also want to add a sponge to your intake to prefilter some of the larger particles. A sponge is easy to clean and extends the time between cleaning the canister mechanical media.
 
I'm trying to picture a sponge around my filter intake but wouldn't that stop the water flow by a fair amount. How do you go about setting that up?
 
reiverix said:
I'm trying to picture a sponge around my filter intake but wouldn't that stop the water flow by a fair amount. How do you go about setting that up?
Click to expand...

This link is to the product I use: http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products/KW/SPONGE,FILTER/Class//T1/F33+0558+0007/Itemdy00.aspx

You can use other things but I like this model because it comes with adapters that let me connect it to different diameters.

I don't use the strainer that came with the filter because of the sponge. It is not a fine filter sponge and the only time it begins to restrict the water flow is when it is getting clogged. If it is starting to clog, then my canister would have clogged a lot sooner because it filters even finer particles.

Because it is a sponge, it also provides another instance of biological filtration. I just rinse it in water that doesn't contain chlorine like I would any sponge.

Take a look at this:
http://www.simplydiscus.com/forum/index.php?board=21;action=display;threadid=7853
 
I'm not a cannister guy yet, but have done some research and have a pretty good handle on filtration in general. I personally would go wih mostly or all biomedia, and an intake sponge. ntake sponges have made my life so easy, and they virtually last forever.
dave
 
daveedka said:
I'm not a cannister guy yet, but have done some research and have a pretty good handle on filtration in general. I personally would go wih mostly or all biomedia, and an intake sponge. ntake sponges have made my life so easy, and they virtually last forever.
dave
Click to expand...

One of the reasons I don't go with all bio is I want to get my water a little bit cleaner before it hits the bio filtration.
 
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